Status Updates From Missing Chums (Hardy Boys #4)

The kidnappers' plan was to stage a fake drowning and then have the boys write postcards so everyone thinks they peaced out on vacation. Apparently after drowning.
Seems legit.

This thug's great vice is...drinking soda and getting into fights.

Coke must still have been putting cocaine in their drinks.

I can get why the Hardy Boys think it is a good idea to voluntarily get kidnapped so they can find their friends' kidnappers because they are teenage boys without fully developed frontal lobes but what is their Dad's excuse?

Joe: "You can't come with us."
Iola: * begins to cry *
Joe: "Aw shucks, you can come."

>.>

Frank and Joe go completely undercover. Full costume, makeup, "tough tone."
And then they go and blow their cover 5 minutes later.
This is why the Hardy Boys appealed to me more than Nancy Drew growing up. They might be dumb, but they keep the pace going.

"Just walking along the beach," Joe returned in a tough-sounding voice. "Looking for junk."
"Yeah? Well, get out of here and do it some place else. See?"
"This is a free country," Frank retorted, also speaking in a tough tone.

Ah, Frank, love. What a come back.

"The boys may be nearer than I thought. I've already sent out a seventeen-state missing persons alarm."

Well, that is a weirdly specific alarm.